Final Post Prompt - Technology All Around Us

 Introduction 

We will never be in a time again where technology won’t be critical and crucial in living. It has become a huge part of our daily lives. It is easy to get lost in a world full of technology. Walk around the streets of New York City or Tokyo and there is technology that swarms you. The world is constantly evolving and technology is continuing to evolve and become more engraved into society. Over the last decade, technology has become increasingly and increasingly popular as it’s hard to point out a time where you looked around and didn’t see a single piece of technology because it is everywhere. Technology have so many benefits but it also has so many negatives. Everybody is still trying to navigate all this technology to use it properly, efficiently, and effectively because it is extremely challenging to use all this new technology to your benefit. 

Role and Relationship with Technology 

Technology has transformed our lives in ways we never imagined. We carry powerful phones in our pockets and powerful computers underneath our arms that allows us to have access to any piece of information in the world, and allows us to communicate and connect with anyone throughout the world in seconds. But as technology continues to evolve and become an even bigger part to our lives and society, it is worth asking: Are we better off with technology? Well technology makes our lives easier for sure. We can work remotely, manage your task and life while learning new skills on YouTube all at the same time. Technology has played a huge role in my life. I use it everyday, I mean I am using it right now to work on this assignment. It plays a huge part in my life because it is all around me. My phone, my computer, and my apple watch I use every day are all examples of technology. I couldn’t have imagined going through school, work and my day-to-day life for the last 15 or so years without technology because it has been so helpful in school as I have used it to do research for projects because of the vast number of resources technology has, helpful in my work life as it has helped me manage and more efficiently perform my job, and has helped me in my day-to-day life managing different aspects of my life, communicating with people across the world, and gaining valuable information about my day-to-day life. I think my relationship with technology is fairly healthy because I use technology for positive uses such as for research and learning, school assignments, and communicating with friends and family across the world. Now I do believe that technology takes up too much time in my life but it’s because it is constantly around me where I am sort of forced to use it in a sense. I do think there are so many times where I use technology just to use it and do it with no purpose such as when I just scroll on Instagram watching videos or looking at pictures that are all irrelevant compared to other things that I could be doing better with my time. 

Is Technology Beneficial?

Technology is only beneficial if you use it in beneficial ways. I believe I use technology in beneficial ways because the majority of the time when I am using technology, I am using it to research and learn whether it’s learning about good hygiene regiments, positive daily routines, efficient workouts, how to network, and much more. I am also using technology to communicate with individuals throughout the world as technology has made it incredibly easy to communicate with anybody you seek to communicate with all over the world. Technology makes having relationships extremely easy as you are able to keep updated with individuals at any moment you seek. While technology can be beneficial, it can also be extremely addicting just like drugs, sex, and alcohol are to others. People all over the world are constantly glued to their phones. If I were to go to a restaurant or the mall right now, I bet the majority of people would have their heads down, looking at the most random, unbeneficial things on social media or other platforms on their technologies instead of looking at what is in front of them and enjoying who and what is around them. Technology has made people extremely depressed, anxious, antisocial, introverted, and has caused suicide rates to skyrocket because of cyberbullying, comparison to others, and the overall outrageous amounts of time people spend on their phones a day. 

Conclusion 

Technology is a tool, and how we use it determines if it is beneficial or not. It can either distract our time and make us extremely distant from the world or allow us to be connected with the world in beneficial and efficient ways. We can choose to use it to grow and deepen relationships, learning, growth and creativity or we can use it to distract and drain us of our time. In order to do that, though, we have to become more intentional with how we use technology and allow it to be a positive rather than a negative aspect of our lives because it’s not going away anytime soon so we need to continue to adapt and evolve because technology is continuing to adapt and evolve. 

EOTO 2 Reacts Blog Post #11

 Chilling Effect

The first topic that caught my attention was the chilling effect. I had never heard of this concept before but it is when individuals or groups refrain from engaging in protected activities or speech out of a fear of social and legal repercussions. This concept is actually very negative because this effect reflects a weakening of democracy and a suppression of free speech. It is honestly sad that individuals are scared to voice their opinions because of a fear they have of other individuals and groups’ opinions on their opinion. 

Mainstream and Alternative Media

The two forms of media are completely different as mainstream media is the media that we receive and see on our phones through social media and on television through news channels. Mainstream media has a huge impact on public opinion, ideas, perspectives and beliefs as it can greatly influence individuals or groups to think, act, and feel a certain way about a particular subject. That is the purpose and goal of mainstream media is for these huge news channel avenues do a thing called agenda setting which is a concept where the media tells us what to think about a certain topic without us even really realizing it. Alternative media on the other hand is non-traditional sources of news and information that challenges the narrative presented by mainstream media. Alternative media is individuals or groups voicing their opinions on topics through social media platforms such as Instagram and X which challenge the thinking and belief behind ideas that the mainstream media puts out. This form of media usually picks at all of the errors of mainstream media and tries to correct those errors even though alternative media does have a lot of bias and discrimination involved within. Alternative media also poses a threat of potential spreadings of misinformation, influences negative behaviors, and can cause defamation. Both forms of media are nowhere near perfect at all and are completely different, however, both are crucial in how society thinks, acts, and feels. 

Human Capital Theory

This was another cool concept that I had never heard of and was unaware about prior to the presentations. The Human Capital Theory is the theory that the more you invest in yourself, the bigger reward you get. This theory tells us to invest in our futures because doing so will lead to a life filled with productivity. The theory gives us a lot of motivation, and a deeper and more advanced understanding of better ourselves. This theory also assumes that investing in your education is necessary to acquire skills and training which, in turn, will increase individual capital. 

Facial Recognition Software

The last concept I wanted to discuss was the presentation slide on facial recognition software because of the ever so evolving society we live in and how engraved facial recognition software is in our society. Facial recognition software was ineffective when these systems were first tested and tried but success grew with better cameras, faster processing, and learning machines. Facial recognition software is used all around us as it is used in devices, law enforcement, airports, retail stores, banking, etc. This presents many concerns such as potential errors, and issues such as surveillance issues and privacy concerns such as breaches. While there are many positives such as it reducing crime and increasing security, the negatives completely outweigh the positives. 

Living in the Age of AI - Blog Post #10

 Positive Aspects of Artificial Intelligence

While a lot of people talk about the negative effects of Artificial Intelligence, AI provides a lot of good to society through education, jobs, etc. AI is transforming industries and everyday life from healthcare and finance to agriculture and cybersecurity, AI is driving innovation, increasing efficiency, and solving the most complex problems. AI reduces human error as these AI systems when properly programmed properly can minimize the errors that humans might make due to a number of factors that include fatigue, human limitation, distraction, and more. AI systems can also process information and complete tasks significantly faster with more accuracy, efficiency, and effectivity than humans can and that is the reason why a lot of companies, restaurants, and other jobs are replacing humans with Artificial Intelligence because of these reasons. AI systems has the ability to analyze large amounts of data quickly and accurately AI systems also improve innovation as they systems are geared to garner creative, innovative, and unique ideas because AI systems have built in data analytics and insight to help individuals and businesses make more informed, effective, and data driven decisions. Another one of the key benefits of AI is the benefits it has in terms of improving the education experience for individuals. AI can improve personalized learning experiences by providing tutoring help for students while also summarizing existing materials, and helping with new materials. 

Privacy, Pros, and Cons

Artificial Intelligence raises several privacy concerns due to its heavy reliance on data collection and the potential for misuse of personal information. A number of privacy errors can occur such as data breaches because of the amounts of data that AI systems rely on, and if not properly protected, this data can be targeted by cybercriminals. Data breaches can result in unauthorized access to individuals’ personal data, financial data, etc which can result in identify theft. Other privacy errors that can occur are unauthorized data use, and the risk of bias, discrimination and spreading of false and manipulative information. AI-powered surveillance technology systems such as facial recognition and location tracking raise concerns about mass surveillance and erosion of privacy as these technologies can enable continuous monitoring of individuals’ activities and behaviors. It is honestly scary how much AI is around us and engraved in society. It was incredibly scary when in the video it said that Google can guess what you’re thinking about because it knows where you have been and what you have been doing. AI has developed so much that everywhere we look, whether in the classroom, on your phone, on walking in New York City, there is AI systems all around us. What’s most frightening is that these systems are tracking our every movements whether we know it or not. In the video it said 6,000 cameras were deployed in China on every street and village corner so government can use it to identify individuals and cars which is crazy. Every place we go, and whoever we are with at any given specific time, AI is tracking. As what was written a few lines above, this is incredibly scary because of the likelihood of a hacker breaching the data and gaining all of your information. As cool as facial recognition and location tracking might be, it is incredibly risky because these systems can be hacked at any second of the day. Identify theft has always been pretty common for people to experience, but it is even more common in today’s society due to Artificial Intelligence. Artificial Intelligence is continuing to expand and evolve rapidly and as this happens, our privacy becomes more at risk of being breached and hacked every single day. 

Progressive Era - Blog Post #7

 Mainstream Media Affect

Mainstream news media today only puts out and shows you information that they want you to see and hear so that you form opinions and beliefs that align with their opinions and beliefs. The media hides stories, ideas, and beliefs that are unacceptable, unfavorable and radical because the media is trying make you think and act a certain way. I have never heard of the two websites: ANTIWAR.COM and The American Conservative which definitely has a lot to do with how unfavorable the media deems the opinions on these two websites are. The writers on these two websites voice their opinions which completely goes against what the media believes. The media doesn’t believe in anybody’s opinion or that anybody should have an opinion but the one that they put out to the public. A lot of the time mainstream media hides these websites so that the ideas, beliefs, perspectives, and opinions from people on these websites doesn’t shine to light, and instead stays hidden because the last thing mainstream media wants is for people to start supporting the ideas, beliefs, perspectives, and opinions form these websites because the media wants people to only support what what they are sharing to the world. 

Overton Window

A lot of the ideas and opinions that those hidden websites are writing about fall outside of the Overton window which is a scale that deems government polices are either acceptable or unfavorable and radical. Ideas that fall within the Overton window are acceptable ideas, beliefs, and opinions to society and this is what mainstream media puts out to the public is things that fall within the Overton window. The beliefs, perspectives, and opinions that are written on these hidden websites are outside of the Overton window as society deems them unfavorable which is another reason why these websites are hidden, and not talked about. In this instance, antiwar is deemed unfavorable and unacceptable in society so that idea falls outside of the Overton window meaning these sites are not going to be easily accessed because this goes against the belief of society. If antiwar was an idea that was seen as acceptable in society then these sites would not be hidden, and would instead be showcased most likely to the public and media. 

EOTO 2 Blog Post #9

 Subject: Overton Window

Implications

The Overton window is a scale that deems government policies as acceptable or unacceptable and radical. This window helps gauge what ideas, perspectives, and views society deems as favorable and acceptable in any given time. It plays a huge role in shaping societal norms, beliefs, and even laws. This window helps politicians make decisions in what polices and ideas they either support or don’t. Politicians follow what society deems as favorable ideas through this window to reduce the risk of losing electoral support because ideas outside of the Overton window are unfavorable to society so the Overton window is a great guide to embrace ideas or not. This window shows why and how ideas, views, and perspectives change over time. 

How this affects society?

The Overton window has a lot of affect on the decisions, ideas, perspectives, and norms society makes and supports because the majority of people support whatever ideas, perspectives, and beliefs are within the Overton window at that particular time because if it’s outside the window, it’s often dismissed as too radical or unthinkable. The Overton window helps define the limits of mainstream thought and whoever moves it has the power to reshape society. The window shapes public opinion because media, influencers, and public figures help expand, grow or change the window by exposing people to different ideas, beliefs, and perspectives. Over time, ideas that were once unacceptable can be normalized and vice versa because people’s opinions are constantly changing. For example, same-sex marriage was illegal in the state of Califronia in 2008 until 2013 when laws were passed throughout the country to make same-sex marriage legal as media, influencers and other people made it increasingly popular to support same-sex marriage which ultimately influenced the decision for the majority of states across the country to deem the idea of sex-same marriage acceptable too. Other examples of ideas and laws changing because the Overton window grew and expanded was the prohibition laws, voting rights for women, etc. The Overton window also affects and alters social behavior. What’s polite or offensive changes. For example, jokes that made fun of race or gender was common in the early 2000s, however, those jokes are deemed unacceptable in today’s society because the Overton window has shifted in the last 20 years to deem those ideas as radical. The window also shapes how people talk as individuals may start using different slang and language to stay within what’s accepted in society or else an individual might be “canceled” by society if an individual says things outside the current window. 

How this affects me and my generation?

The Overton window affects me and my generation a lot because it really shapes how we are “supposed” to think or believe. It forces me and my generation to stay within a certain window and not step outside of the window in expressing thoughts, opinions and ideas that we support but society doesn’t because we live in a cancel culture due to social media that is quick to “cancel” somebody if someone disagrees with the ideas, beliefs, and perspectives that society deems as right. It makes it hard for us to feel like we have an opinion, voice, or belief without receiving backlash from individuals because our opinion, belief, and ideas fall outside of the Overton window.

Diffusion of Innovations

 Instagram

Introduction and History of Instagram

Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms in the entire world as it competes with the Facebooks, the X’s (formerly known as Twitter), and the TikTok’s of the world. Instagram was founded in 2010. Unlike a lot of start up businesses or apps, Instagram took off in popularity extremely fast as the app reached one million registered users within the first two months of it launching. At the end of year one, the app reached 10 million users and by 2018 the app reached one billion registered users. Instagram has doubled that number from 2018 as the app has two billion registered users as of 2025. 

Before Instagram 

Prior to Instagram, Facebook, MySpace and Twitter were the three biggest social media platforms up until Instagram’s launch. Instagram was then launched and people were immediately intrigued by the app’s features, and the purpose of the app which is to share photos and videos for the world to see, which therefore connects individuals to others across the world. Instagram became a huge success, but others weren’t as intrigued by the app and its features because individuals were still hooked on Facebook, Twitter and even possibly MySpace. 

The Takeoff of Instagram and Decline of Facebook

It wouldn’t become long until users from Facebook and MySpace started to switch over to Instagram. The majority of the people that would end up switching to Instagram were younger individuals because of Instagram’s features that primarily targeted the younger generation. While the majority of the younger generation, ages 13-25, started using Instagram, it left a lot of the older people left that used Facebook and MySpace. In 2014 and 2015, 71 percent of teenagers were using Facebook and now that number is down to beneath 32 percent. This has a lot to do with Instagram’s constant push for evolving and centering its app around the younger generation while Facebook has struggled to evolve in an attempt to garner the younger generation which is the most crucial generation to gain, and because of this the younger generation is continually switching from Facebook to Instagram. Even the older generation is catching onto the younger generation, possibly in an attempt for the older generation to be caught up in the younger generation’s uses, and switching from Facebook and other social media platforms to Instagram because of the app’s appeal to all. 5.24 billion people worldwide use social media which is nearly 64 percent of the entire world, and within the last year, there has been over 200 new social media users. 

Negative Effects of Instagram and Social Media as a Whole

So why has the other 36 percent of people in the world not caught onto the use of Instagram or social media as a whole? Well there are a lot of negatives to Instagram and other social media platforms. Social media can cause numerous mental health issues such as anxiety and depression that can stem from online bullying, addiction, comparing oneself to others, and a decline in face-to-face communication. Those are all reasons why some might choose to not use social media so they don’t have to deal with those negative issues that come with using social media. 

Benefits of Social Media and Conclusion

However, social media can be a huge benefit to that 36 percent because social media allows you to connect to the world in ways in which you thought you couldn’t. From making friends with people across the country to staying up to date with your favorite celebrity, athlete or influencer, you can connect with the entire world through a singular app. While there are a lot of negative effects of social media, I believe the positive outweigh the negative because personally I connect and communicate with a lot of my long-distance friends through Instagram as well as I’ve made new friends through the platform. It is different for everybody but I personally think Instagram is a great way to access the world, and there are endless opportunities and resources that are available and you can find through the platform.

Privacy, Online & Off Blog Post

 Introduction 

We live in a world full of evolving technology. Smartphones, computers, iPads, and other forms of technology are all around us. We are constantly on our cellphones, texting, calling or emailing someone(s), however, what a lot of cellphone users do not know is that our messages, phone calls, and entire phones are wiretapped and tracked by the government and anybody that can hack into the surveillance system of telephone companies which is scary. Every piece of technology that we see is tracking our every step of our daily lives whether we want our lives to be tracked or not. 

Privacy Concerns 

This affects our privacy because if our entire lives are tracked then we can’t protect any private piece of information or conversation. I have to worry about my friends and families lives’ because they are always being tracked as well. What if a hacker, stalker, or killer were to hack into either my phones surveillance system or my house surveillance system and gain critical information about my daily lives and worse, gain information about the layout of my house. This can pose a serious threat to my life, my families’ lives, and my friends’ lives because our lives can and would be at serious danger, and that is scary. I have heard of numerous stories of hackers hacking into house surveillance systems and either speaking from the system to people within the house or plotting to break-in to the house from being able to see the entire layout of the house. 

Examples of Privacy Threats

One of the videos, the person discussed the threat of Automatic License Plate Readers that police officers use and are seen on street corners and such. These readers capture images of every passing car and convert that license plate into machine relatable text. With these images, police and government officials are able to see into the lives of every person driving a car which includes what store or place a person is heading and what that person is doing at that particular store or place. The law enforcement also a device called a "StingRay" which can sends tracking signals inside people’s homes to see what cell phones are in that particular home. These high-tech surveillance gears completely invade our personal privacy and can harm us in the most dangerous ways. Our lives are constantly at harm with these high-tech surveillance gears because there is never a moment when a law enforcement or government official isn’t tracking our whereabouts or our conversations with our children, doctors, spouses, friends, etc. 

Solutions and Conclusion

A lot of phone companies nowadays have tried to incorporate strict encryption methods to prevent wiretapping and hacking, but it’s still not impossible for people to hack into these encryption methods and get into our lives which should be protected. It’s hard for us to protect ourselves from invasions of our privacy without trashing our phones, computers, ipads, and any other piece of technology we have in our homes but that still wouldn’t protect our privacy because there is technology outside of just our own personal technology that can track our every movements. One idea that was brought up in one of the videos to protect our privacy even slightly is to go to the city councils because local police departments are governed by city councils and propose laws requiring the police to dispose of the data and surveillance of innocent people while allowing the legitimate uses of the technologies to continue. There are good reasons for government officials and law enforcement officers to use technologies to track humans because there are a lot of bad people in this world, but there are also a lot of good people in this world whose lives are at a constant threat every second of the day because of these tracking technologies so while they should be kept at a capacity, these technologies need to be restricted severely so our privacy is protected because at this current moment with technology smothered around us, our privacy is nowhere near protected.

EOTO 1 React Blog Post

 Introduction and Invention of the Newspaper

I learned a lot of valuable information and unique facts during the EOTO one presentations that I did not know before prior to people presenting that were actually really cool to learn about. I learned a lot of information about a plentiful amount of innovative ideas such as the start up of televisions, newspapers, typewriters, email, apple iPhones, Google, and many more innovative inventions. Alex did a presentation on the invention and evolution of newspapers. Since I am a journalism minor and have been a sports writer for over five years now, I was immediately intrigued at the topic. What I was unaware of was that the first newspaper was written in 59 BCE in Ancient Rome. This blew my mind because I was totally shocked at how long newspapers have been around for. I always thought that newspapers had only been around for a hundred or so years, since the early 1900s so for me to find out that the first newspaper was written in 59 BCE completely shocked me. I can’t imagine how that first newspaper looked but the evolution since that very first newspaper has been extraordinary. 

Invention of Google

Another presentation that intrigued me was the invention of Google. The search engine like we know it today that we use daily was originally called “Backrub.” Yes, “Backrub.” That might be the strangest name to come up with but it eventually turned into the Google like we know it today. “Backrub” was an invention by three Stanford students who were working on a class assignment with the students’ goal and intent to be to create a more sufficient search engine in which you can find any piece of information through key words, and they created just that: a search engine used by billions of people around the world. It’s honestly incredible how three full-time college students were able to create such an invention that would completely change the world. This invention inspires me to come up with ideas of inventions because I am a full-time college student just like the three founders of Google. 

Invention of YouTube

A presentation that I found intriguing was the invention of YouTube and how it was started because the story was very cool. YouTube was founded by three former Paypal employees. The three employees struggled to share videos from a dinner party, decided to create YouTube for easy video sharing in 2005. The platform immediately blew up as people from around the world were able to watch videos online while also being able to upload their own videos. What is crazy is that a year and a half after the platform was launched, Google bought YouTube for a billion dollars. That is incredible for a platform that was launched not even two years prior. That billion dollars is nothing today as YouTube is estimated to be worth $400-$500 billion and maybe more. 

Invention of Facebook

The last presentation I found incredibly intriguing was the invention of Facebook. This presentation honestly probably shocked me the most because of the unique story behind the invention of the super popular social media platform. Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg and four or his college roommates at Harvard University. I had no idea the platform was founded by not just Zuckerberg because nobody ever talks about the four other founders. The first version of Facebook was launched in 2003. The initial name of the platform was “FaceMash” which was a platform that rated the attractiveness of females at Harvard. The university quickly shut down the platform after it was launched which inspired Zuckerberg and his roommates to get back to work to launch another platform, and they did which ended up becoming Facebook.